What’s the best advice your mom has given you?

Over the years, my mom has given me a lot of advice. I wish I could easily put my finger on the very best but it all tends to swirl around me and through me. Some I listened to, some I ignored. If only she had had a blog, right? Then I could search for her guidance at just the right times.

Before I had my second baby, Whitney made me a terrific scrapbook of tips and advice from our mom friends with two or more babies. Including my own mother. Mixed in among my girlfriends’ suggestions to “let some things go” and “hold onto order even more tightly” was a little blast of advice from the seventies.

We lovingly call this piece of advice from my mom God bless the rocking chair (because that’s how it starts), but the nugget of wisdom I most appreciate is to spend one-on-one time with my children as often as possible.

I believe that the time we spend together doing what they want is a foundation for their happy childhood memories. Whether its playing a silly board game during naptime, building an epic fort, or creating a LEGO comic strip out of Q-tips, they will remember me as a mama who plays (at least I hope!).

As for the first part of her advice, I must make sure to get a cozy big glider for those snuggles before my children are too big to curl up with.

don’t feel comfortable with the video-stuff, don’t live in the US, so I just reply here: my mom told me that every time my kid(s) want something they’re usually not getting (chocolate in the morning, more ice cream…), stop. think about whether you can keep up your “no” while your kid is screaming and rolling on the floor, and only if you can handle that at this moment, really say “no”.

[…] with baby #2 (the one we now call Milo), Whitney asked our friends and scoured the Internets for baby advice for me. The best one about bathing a baby (when you have two under two or even two under three) is […]

The Rookie Moms™

Heather (L) & Whitney (R) are BFFs who wanted to have more fun with their babies. [read more]